FROM PORTLAND, OREGON

(click on left thumbnail for map of Oregon; on right to see my Day 1 route)

Portland, Coastline - Day 1

(click on thumbnails to enlarge)

Columbia River Gorge

PORTLAND, May 26, 2007 - My trip to Oregon was a lot easier than that Lewis and Clark expedition faced in 1804.  A little less than three hours after taking off from the Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix, we had the snow-capped Mt. Hood in our sights on the right side of the airplane.  The 11,200-Mt. Hood was proudly gleaming in bright sunlight, looking down on the river and the valleys to the west.  A few minutes later, we landed at the Portland airport on the southern bank of Columbia River.  And thus my Memorial Day weekend "Oregon Trail" adventure began...

Right off the bat, I made a wrong turn.  Instead of heading west on I-84, I turned the other way... starting on the Oregon Trail as if "conquering the East" was my mission.  :-)  It took me about 20 miles to realize my error as I was talking to Karen on the phone and describing the beautiful scenery to her.  Here's, for example, a view of the Columbia River Gorge...

... from the farthest point a British expedition reached in 1792, also going upriver, as you can see from this historic plaque.

And this is the view of only half of the mighty Columbia River toward Portland, as the land on the right is an island.

Downtown Portland

Okay, so after this brief "detour," I drove through downtown Portland on my way to Hillsboro, a western suburb, where I had intended to "make camp" (at a Marriott's Residence Inn) before pushing farther west to the Coast.

The downtown are was less than impressive...

...but I did like some of the Portland suburbs, such as this area on Hwy 26, just west of the city center.

Countryside...

The countryside west of Portland is surprisingly pretty flat...

...but pretty nevertheless.  I figured I'd be having to cross rugged coastal mountains, the way the California coastline looks.

Instead, the road cut through a lot of pretty spruce forests...

...where springtime flowers provided yellow and white color. 

The pine forest itself was very beautiful, yet I could not help but think of how much more colorful the Arizona desert is, despite its shortage of water (click here to see some photos taken a year ago in Scottsdale).

Turning Back the Clock... Logging History on Display

About half way between Portland and Cannon Beach, my intended destination on the Pacific Coast, I saw an unusual spot.  I quickly turned off to take a closer look.  It was like turning back the clock 120 years...

As you can see from this old wooden water tower, surrounded by gorgeous flowers, this was once the site of the logging Camp 18.  Now it's a restaurant that is surrounded by just about every kind of logging equipment imaginable, as you can see if you click on thumbnails that follow.

But first, this close up to give you an idea about the size of some of the trees the loggers had to cut and process some 120 years ago.

The water mill in the rightmost thumbnail, comes with a story...

...and here it is...... a story of one family's struggle to cope with "high tech" a century ago.

There was even this old, but well preserved, fire truck, parked in front of the restaurant.

Amid all this industrial era museum pieces, the owners of Camp 18 have planted flowers that soften and beautify the scenery.

There are even wooden carvings at Camp 18, like this "menacing" bear on the left.  But there is nothing like nature itself to show us what real beauty is like (such as that serene creek scene), or the natural, wild yellow flowers.

New White Horse Friends

While driving into Camp 18, I had spied from the corner of my eye a couple of white horses in a nearby meadow.  So after perusing the logging antiques, I headed in that direction...

You can see them, too, grazing in the field just behind that old water tower (highlighted).

And then, as I have done in Missouri, Canada and Western Australia, I started talking to the horses.  And they came to me, slowly... 

first the male, then the filly.  Soon, we were fast friends.

Cannon Beach

After about a two-hour drive from Portland, like Lewis and Clark, I eventually reached the Pacific Ocean.  It was at Cannon Beach, a spot that an Oregon real estate agent recommended for me to visit.  It was worth the effort...

This is Cannon Beach, marked by the famous Haystack Rock.

It was cold and windy today... probably in the 50s (F). Yet there were quite a few people on this big beach, as you can see.

Even here, just off the beach, there were pretty flowers.  And a little ways down the road, there were horse stables behind a pretty creek.  Two girl riders rode leisurely on the other side of the creek toward the ocean.

The main street of Cannon Beach has a feel of a quaint old town (leftmost thumbnail).  There is even a live theater, with a sign "performance tonight" (second from left).  Closer to the beach, one finds typical wood frame beach houses, with windswept cypress trees bowing to them gracefully (second from right).  And then there is an old barber shop.  Yes, that dilapidated building that looks like a doll house is a part of the now abandoned barber shop called "Rain Drop."  :-)

Some close-ups of the Haystack Rock, and a parting view from the south of Cannon Beach.

That's where a whole new coastal vista opens up, looking toward the south from an overlook just off Hwy 101.

And that's all she wrote from my Day 1 on the Oregon Trail...

Click here to go to... Day 2

Click here to go to... Oregon Index

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